Fairford RFC Newsletter Number Twenty-Three April 2018 Save the Date ……… All members of Fairford Rugby Club are invited to the ‘End of Season Awards’ evening on Friday 22 June. The event will take place in the newly refurbished function hall at Cinder Lane, the home of Fairford Town FC. Details are being finalised so look out for details in the next edition of the newsletter, on Facebook or on our website. In the meantime, please save the date. This event is not just for seniors but for all club members and it would be fantastic to see a huge turnout from parents, carers, volunteers and coaches, we encourage you all to come and celebrate. Mini and Juniors End of Season Dates Please see dates (below) to end of season, note we have moved the end of season event forward by a week for logistical reasons and apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. • Sunday 1 April – NO TRAINING – Easter Sunday • Sunday 8 April – U6 / U8 / U9 / U10 – Away at Cirencester RFC. U7 Tournament at Painswick RFC • Sunday 15 April – All training at home (Leafield Road Pitches) • Sunday 22 April – END OF SEASON EVENT. Start 1030hrs, finish 1400hrs-ish. Fun training session, followed by presentations of certificates, medals for all children, awards presentations. Parents touch rugby session (hope you will all join in) and food, drink (bar) available to purchase in addition to inflatable fun. • Sunday 29 April – COACHES ONLY – final session of the season for Coaches only to wrap up 2017/18 season and plan for the 2018/19 season. Roaring Rugby Camp – Thursday 12 and Friday 13 April Places are still available for the Roaring Rugby Fairford RFC Easter Camp, Always a fun two days and extremely popular with all our members. You can secure your places through the following link (£50 two days / £30 one day): https://www.roaringrugby.co.uk/booking/ We would like to thank Chris Andrew and his team at Roaring Rugby for their continued support in helping us develop and maintain a thriving membership base. We truly value the partnership that we have with them. Age Grade Rugby Regulations We have had recent requests for children to ‘play up’ an age level. We are sorry that we cannot accommodate such requests, as we are regulated and accredited by the RFU. For those of you who wish to know more, please use the following link, or please email us with questions: http://www.englandrugby.com/governance/regulations/ We apologise for any upset this may of caused but we hope you all appreciate that the safety of all our members is paramount to us. Fundraising for the Club We are always looking for ways to fundraise for the club to ensure we remain financially sustainable. We have signed up to the ‘easy fundraising’ initiative where monies are raised at no additional cost to you whilst you shop at major high street brands. Please follow this link to get you started: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/fairfordrfc/?q=fairford&cat=caus e-autosuggest We hope that you will participate and encourage friends and family to do so also. Sunday 25 April - U10 Tournament at Cirencester RFC An amazing morning at the Gloucestershire RFU under 10 tournament, Sunday 25 April. What fantastic rugby from 32 teams from across the county. We were so proud of our U10 team who played some outstanding matches, giving it their all. The stars of the show were coach Luke, players Molly, Tom, Harry, Thomas, Jack, Oliver, Rowan and Luke. The shining star was Harry Seward, who due to ‘Age Grade Rugby’ could not play with his team, but still turned out to wish his team luck and cheer them on, fabulous sportsmanship. Thank you to Cirencester RFC for hosting so brilliantly. Photos follow: Sunday 25 April - U8 Tournament at Stow on the Wold RFC More fantastic rugby, this time our U8 team were playing at the Gloucestershire RFU U8 tournament. Fabulous efforts by all, what a truly brilliant team, again some brilliant rugby being played. A huge thank-you to our coaches Matthew and Kevin and to all players and parents. Thanks to Stow RFC for hosting and to Kelly and Debbie for these photos. Race Night – 10 March 8pm, Cricket Cub Thank-you to Charlie Bailey for organising the Race Night at the Cricket Club, 10 March, and to all those who turned out for an evening of fun and flutter. £355.00 was raised for club funds on the evening. Flying the Flag for Women’s Rugby – Saturday 24 March Our very own Lucy Bull was flying the flag for Fairford RFC as the official mascot at the Gloucester-Hartpury game v's Loughborough Lightning. She brought them luck as they won 43 v 33. Lucy met all the players and coaching staff, providing her with inspiration for the U8's tournament at Stow RFC tomorrow. We have numerous female players in all our junior age groups and would love to see more coming along and playing rugby at our club. For those of you who want to follow women’s rugby please find a link to the England RFU women’s rugby page: http://www.englandrugby.com/my- rugby/players/womens-rugby/ IMPORTANT We need you ……… any budding coaches out there? We are in the process of planning for next season (2018/19). We are in need of new coaches, in particular for our younger age groups (U5/6/7). Please note you do not need to commit to every week, just when you are available. If anyone is interested in getting involved (or having a trial period) please speak to Jenny Cook, or one of our coaching team on a Sunday. We ask that all our coaches complete a DBS check and all training etc is paid for by the club. The club is voluntary run organisation and we rely on the goodwill of all our volunteers. Thank-you to all who have come forward and volunteered in February & March, we very much appreciate it. Volunteering Opportunities As a volunteer run club, we are always looking to our members, parents, carers and wider community to get involved. A huge thank-you to those that responded to the last call out for sponsorship secretary and website coordinator, we have hopefully now filled those positions (names to follow). We currently have one specific role that we are looking to fill (in addition to coaches above). We hope there is someone out there who is willing to help. If you are interested in any of the positions below please email Lindsey at: [email protected] or speak to Jenny or on a Sunday (usually found in the cabin). • Volunteer coordinator. Emma Bishop is standing down as volunteer coordinator at the end of this season. A massive thank-you to Emma for all her hard work over the last two seasons, it has been very much appreciated. We are now seeking a new volunteer coordinator, the main task being the coordination of the Buttie Van rota, as well as volunteers for events etc. The majority of this work is coordinated by email, so a great opportunity for someone who wants to get involved, but coaching does not appeal. Please get in touch. Seniors Update GRFU Cup Final L11 Cup Winners! On 24 February Fairford travelled away to Painswick to play their league rivals in the GRFU cup final. Last year Fairford made it to the final, only to fall at the final hurdle. This year looked to be heading in a similar direction as they trailed by 2 early tries 14-0. Fairford soon rallied and game back to play some fantastic rugby against a strong Painswick outfit. Tries from Mike Wrona, Eric White, Keelan Little and the imperious MOM Laurence Griggs helped turn the game around and seal a 32-34 win. More impressive than the performance on the field was the one off it. The club took a coach with over 50 people to the game to spur the team on as you can see in the photo below. Fairford vs Smiths 2s After league opposition Tetbury cried off, we managed to play host to Smiths 2s on 3 March. This was a great chance to give other members of the squad experience and Fairford won comfortably 17-7 in an error strewed game. Photo follows of the game: Fairford lose cup final rematch After the jubilation of the cup final win, Fairford could not match their performance when they played Painswick in their league game at Fairford. Playing on 17 March in the bitter 'beast from the east'. Fairford couldn't cope with Painswick's physicality and went down 10-29. Fairford battle against league leaders. Fairford took on league leaders United Bristol Hospitals (UBH) on 24 March in their final league home game of the season. The visitors drew first blood with 2 early scores before Charlie Bailey answered for the hosts. The game ebbed and flowed and both sides had their purple patched but UBH clung on to win 24-33. Even more impressive for Fairford though was the fact that 22 players pulled on a jersey for the game. New Kit – Thank-you Cullimore’s A big thank you to our sponsors from Cullimore's for a new kit! It will help to serve as an away kit as well and deal with potential kit clashes. The 22 shirts will help with our ever-growing senior squad, a great issue to have! Seniors Tour – 18 to 21 May, Dendermonde, Belgium On the Weekend 18-21 May 2018 Fairford will be going on their first tour abroad for almost a decade! The tour will be taking place in Dendermonde, Belgium for the annual Flanders' 7s tournament.